Blogtag:cpj.org,2008-07-12:/blog//82016-12-09T22:30:37ZMovable Type Pro 6.1.1Security risk for sources as U.S. border agents stop and search journalists tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.273132016-12-09T22:02:57Z2016-12-09T22:30:37Z French-American photojournalist Kim Badawi did not go home to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. He didn't want to risk a repeat of November last year, when he says U.S. border security detained him at Miami airport and interrogated him in minute detail about his private life, political views, and...Alexandra Ellerbeck/CPJ Americas Research Associate

French-American photojournalist Kim Badawi did not go home to Texas for Thanksgiving this year. He didn't want to risk a repeat of November last year, when he says U.S. border security detained him at Miami airport and interrogated him in minute detail about his private life, political views, and journalistic sources.

]]>
Badawi, who had traveled to Miami from Rio in Brazil, where he is based, said he watched as border agents pored over his private photos and WhatsApp messages, and asked detailed questions about his travel. He said he objected when an agent read WhatsApp messages sent to him by a source, a Syrian refugee living in Brazil. Badawi, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker,TheWall Street Journal, and Le Monde, says he told the officers they should call his editors, but that his request was ignored.

"I sat as the so-called immigration police, or Homeland Security agents, rifled their way through the past 10 years of my contacts, professional conversations, and private ones. Having to account for every post, utterance or other person's internet rant, the fragility of freedom begin [sic] to dawn on me," Badawi wrote in a piece published on Huffington Post.

Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Carlos Díaz told CPJ he was unable to comment on specific cases but said officers strictly adhere to all constitutional and statutory requirements when carrying out border searches.

Journalists traveling to the U.S. can face prolonged stops as well as searches that can risk the confidentiality of their sources. The ACOS Alliance, a coalition of news organizations, journalists, and press freedom groups that includes CPJ, are aware of at least seven instances in which journalists say U.S. border and customs agents stopped them for a prolonged period and asked to search their electronic devices.

CPJ's Emergencies Response Team released an advisory today with information for journalists planning to cross the border, including what to expect and how to secure their electronic devices.

Isma'il Kushkush, a former acting bureau chief of the New York Times in East Africa and International Center for Journalists fellow, told CPJ he constantly worries that he will be stopped. He said it has happened five times in the past three years, with interrogations that last two to three hours. In January, border agents searched his electronic devices and questioned him about reporting on refugees in Sweden that he did as part of his Masters at Columbia School of Journalism, he said.

"Do I want to interview a person or not if that interview could become problematic at the border? It's concerning that I could become a source for law enforcement if they take my information and contacts," Kushkush said.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies say that they have authority to search the electronic devices of any individuals entering the country. The Supreme Court has not ruled on such searches, but it has upheld the so-called "border search exception" to the Fourth Amendment's requirement that authorities obtain a warrant to search items coming into the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Díaz told CPJ, "All international travelers arriving to the U.S. are subject to CBP inspection. This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital device."

Many privacy advocates argue that there is a big difference between searching a suitcase to ensure that it doesn't contain weapons or contraband, and searching through someone's private messages on their phone or laptop.

"Smartphones and other electronic devices contain troves of personal data that can be used to construct detailed pictures of the most intimate aspects of our lives. The government claims the authority to search and copy the contents of those devices at the border with no warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing," said Hugh Handeyside, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. "That places at risk the vital privacy interests of hundreds of millions of citizens and visitors who cross the U.S. border each year."

In 2013, the 9th Circuit appeals court ruled, in a divided decision, that border agents cannot engage in a deep forensic search of electronic devices--allowing them to use software to unlock password protected files, for example--without reasonable suspicion, according to Wired.

The American Civil Liberties Union says travelers are sometimes asked to unlock their phones or provide laptop passwords. "Whether you have a right to decline to provide this information is a contested legal issue. The extent to which officers have the authority to search or copy files in your electronic devices without any reasonable suspicion that the devices contain evidence of wrongdoing is also a contested issue," the group's website says.

Handeyside is representing the award-winning Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou, who says he was detained for six hours on October 1 and interrogated, before being denied entry to the U.S.

Ou, who was on his way to cover the Dakota Access Pipeline protests for the Canadian Broadcasting Company, said that agents read his journal and briefly confiscated his electronic devices. He said he refused to give them the passwords, but that he is worried they removed the SIM cards. He told CPJ he repeatedly tried to tell the four customs agents questioning him that he was a journalist. When he offered to put them in touch with his editors and show his credentials, Ou said they told him they already knew he was a journalist.

Ou, who has worked for years in the Middle East, said he has been subjected to this type of surveillance and harassment before. He once even swallowed a SIM card to protect his sources when he was arrested in an authoritarian country, according to an account he wrote in Time.

"Journalists shouldn't have to make a calculation about whether they can risk giving up their sources," Ou told CPJ. "I always thought I'd have to fight for the rights of journalists abroad. I never thought I'd have to do it here in the U.S. or Canada."

A 2009 internal resolution from the Customs and Border Protection requires agents to consult legal counsel if an individual objects to a search on the grounds of protecting privileged legal material that could implicate someone in a crime. But the directive does not provide the same protection for journalists.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to CPJ's request for comment about whether the directive is still in force and whether there are any additional policies regarding sensitive material.

"When countries like the U.S. do this, it sets a precedent around the world that endangers journalists," Ou told CPJ.

When he tried to renew his visa to Turkey December last year, Ou said a consular officer in Tel Aviv told him he was banned. This week, the Turkish government issued a press release defending its own human rights record by arguing that Europe and the U.S. also violate press freedom--and citing how Ou was denied entry into the U.S.

"I'm still banned in Turkey. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," Ou said.

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of December 4tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272922016-12-05T14:57:19Z2016-12-09T18:15:52Z Wire reporter released pending conclusion of trial Mardin's Second Court for Serious Crimes today released Zehra Doğan, a reporter for the shuttered news agency JİNHA, pending the conclusion of her trial, which began today, the pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency reported. Police detained Doğan on July 22, and a court...Özgür Öğret/CPJ Turkey Representative

Wire reporter released pending conclusion of trial Mardin's Second Court for Serious Crimes today released Zehra Doğan, a reporter for the shuttered news agency JİNHA, pending the conclusion of her trial, which began today, the pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency reported. Police detained Doğan on July 22, and a court arraigned her on terrorism charges on July 24, CPJ reported at the time.

]]>
Newspaper office attackedRoughly 30 people wearing masks attacked the Istanbul office of the newspaper Yeni Çağ, the nationalist daily reported today. According to the report, which was accompanied by security camera footage, the group attacked the building in Istanbul's Yenibosna neighborhood last night and damaged the lobby and vehicles parked outside. Nobody was hurt in the incident. Police have begun an investigation, Yeni Çağ reported. Yeni Çağ is close to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), particularly a dissident faction within the party, rather than the current leadership.

Prosecutor censors newspaper for alleging company tied to environment minister illegally dumping toxic waste A prosecutor in the central Turkish province of Kayseri yesterday banned the December 8 edition of the local newspaper Kayseri Deniz Postası, the national newspaper Cumhuriyetreported. The censored edition contained a story, which ran on Kayseri Deniz Postası's website, alleging that the company Kartek was burying toxic waste near a basalt mine it operates. Environment Minister Mehmet Özhaseki owns 3.3 percent of shares in the company, according to Cumhuriyet.

According to the Cumhuriyet report, Kartek official Aytekin Aydemir learned about the story the night before its publication, denied its veracity, and filed a complaint demanding the daily to not to be allowed to distribute the edition and banning the story. A local prosecutor approved the demand and ordered the edition not to be distributed.

Lawmakers from Turkey's largest opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), visited the newspaper's office yesterday. According to Cumhuriyet, CHP Member of Parliament Gürsel Tekin asked, "How did the prosecutor decide at 2:00 a.m. that this story is a lie, a libel?"

Environment Minister Özhaseki denied the newspaper's allegations about the company, said that he inherited his shares in the company from his father, and that he would donate the shares to anyone the CHP chose if the allegations about the company were proven correct.

State to withhold advertising revenue from newspapers with Kurdish-language content Turkey's official Press Advertisement Institution--which distributes official advertisements to newspapers, an important source of revenue for many small publications--has issued an advisory that, effective January 1, it will withhold advertising from publications that have pages in any language but Turkish, or that employ journalists who face criminal prosecution, Journo, the publication of the Turkish Journalists' Association (TGS) reported. Many local newspapers, particularly in Turkey's predominantly ethnic-Kurdish southeastern provinces, run pages in Kurdish, and depend on state advertising revenue to survive. Tigris, a Turkish-language newspaper published in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, told Journo that it had one page in Kurdish, and had planned to add a second, but that they have had to delay that plan. Özgür Haber and Yeni Gün, two other local dailies, cancelled their Kurdish-language pages but intend to bring them back when they can, the report said.

Children of jailed journalist change surname because of bullying Children of jailed journalist Mehmet Baransu had their surname changed because fellow students were bullying them at school, the English-language website Turkish Minutereported. Baransu is jailed pending the conclusion of his trial on charges of obtaining secret documents and propagandizing against the state for the benefit of followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen.

"The children were harassed at school and outside by [students] calling them 'sons of a Gülenist.' The eldest child could no longer leave the house..." a relative of Esra Konur, the mother of the children, told the court that approved the name change, Turkish Minute reported.

Radio station website blocked Turkish authorities blocked the website of the radio station Özgür Radyo, which the government ordered closed by emergency decree after July's failed military coup, Etkin News Agency reported yesterday. The station continued to broadcast online, but authorities blocked its website, ozgurradyo1.com, according to Etkin's report yesterday. Özgür Radyo continues to broadcast online at ozgurradyo2.com.

[December 9, 2016]

Wire reporter jailed pending trial on terrorism charges Police in Turkey's eastern Elazığ province yesterday arrested Mehmet Güleş, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dihaber news agency, the daily newspaper Evrensel and Dihaber reported. Güleş was detained with at least six others on suspicion of "being member of a [terrorist] organization," according to press reports. The journalist is at Elazığ Police Directorate.

Dihaber reported today that a court in Elazığ ordered Güleş jailed pending trial on the terrorism charge, based in part on his phone conversations with journalistic sources and his reports for the pro-Kurdish DİHA news agency, which the government closed by emergency decree in October. That Güleş reported in real time from street battles between ethnic-Kurdish youth and Turkish security forces in Silopi was also used as evidence against him. The Elazığ Court found that Güleş praised the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) and criticized security forces in his reports, according to Dihaber. Güleş was sent to Elazığ Prison, pending trial, the news agency reported.

Socialist news website blocked Socialist news website sendika.org on December 5 announced that authorities had blocked it for the 14th time. The website accordingly began publishing at a new URL, sendika13.org.

Poet, religious leader to stand trial following show of support for shuttered newspaperColumnist and poet Hüseyin Tahmaz and Hasan Hayri Şanlı, a leader of the Alevi sect of Islam, will stand trial on charges of "making propaganda for a terrorist organization" in connection with the coverage of now-shuttered daily newspaper Özgür Gündem on the days each symbolically acted as co-editor to protest authorities' persistent judicial harassment of the newspaper's staff, Evrensel reported.

İnan Kızılkaya, Özgür Gündem's jailed responsible news editor, will be a co-defendant in each trial, since his former position made him legally responsible everything the newspaper published.

Çakırözer reported that the journalists complained that their family visitation rights had been circumscribed, that they could not send or receive letters, that they were allowed to read only the books in the prison library, and that they were allowed to meet with their lawyers only once a week, for an hour, and only in the presence of a prison guard while being videotaped.

Some of the elderly journalists are chronically ill and complained of difficulty in getting medical attention and medicine, Çakırözer said, according to Cumhuriyet.

[December 5, 2016]

]]>
'People talk as they please' Sisi says in comments on Egypt's press freedom record tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272742016-11-28T20:06:16Z2016-12-09T09:10:14Z In Egypt last week a journalist was barred from travel without official explanation, a reporter was accused of criminal defamation over a 2015 investigation on child prostitution, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi defended Egypt's freedom of expression record. An appeal date was also set for the Journalists' Syndicate leaders...CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program

In Egypt last week a journalist was barred from travel without official explanation, a reporter was accused of criminal defamation over a 2015 investigation on child prostitution, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi defended Egypt's freedom of expression record. An appeal date was also set for the Journalists' Syndicate leaders who were sentenced this month to two years in prison.

]]>
TV presenter who aired tuk-tuk driver video banned from travel

Television host Amr al-Leithy was prevented from traveling from Cairo to the United Arab Emirates on November 24. In a post to his official Facebook page, al-Leithy said he first learned of the ban when he was stopped by passport control at Cairo airport with his family and that he was not aware of any charges or open investigations against him. Airport officials did not give a reason for the travel ban, he said.

The journalist told the state-owned al-Ahramnewspaperthathe went to the public prosecutor's office after leaving the airport, but staff there did not disclose information about the ban to him. Al-Leithy said he will seek clarity through official legal channels.

Last month Al-Leithy's weekly show "Wahed Men al Nas" (One of the people), on the privately owned Al-Hayat network, broadcast an interview with a tuk-tuk driver lamenting the Egyptian government's economic policies. The network removed the video from its online sites, but copies of it went viral. Later that month the show was taken off air. In a statement on October 15 the network said the show would not be broadcast because al-Leithy was going on vacation. The same day, al-Leithy confirmed to Al-Masry al-Youmreporters that he was going on a three-week vacation. Neither he nor the network announced a date for the show's return, and no episodes have been aired since. Al-Leithy's daily show, "Bewedooh" (With Clarity), was taken off air at the same time.

On October 17, the pro-government paper Al-Youm al-Saba'a reported that a lawyer named Samir Sabry had filed a complaint to the public prosecutor's office against al-Leithy and the driver in the video, accusing them of incitement. CPJ could not determine if the complaint was related to the travel ban.

Local media reported that he is the first person with no civil society or human rights background and no charges against him to be banned from leaving the country in the recent surge of travel bans. Local and international rights groups and the United Nations have criticized Egypt's increasing use of arbitrary travel bans against human rights defenders.

Reporter questioned over child prostitution article

Rabie al-Saadany, a reporter for the privately owned newspaper Tahrir, appeared before prosecutors November 20 on a charge of criminal defamation over an article on child prostitution in the Cairo neighborhood of Hawamdia. Prosecutors released the journalist on bail after questioning, according to reports.

The charge was brought by Essam Edris, a member of parliament who represents the Hawamdia district and who accused al-Saadany of ruining the reputation of the women of the neighborhood and seeking to destroy relationships in the community. The article, published by Tahrir in December 2015, alleged a relative of Edris's was linked to the prostitution rings.

Al-Saadany told the local press freedom group Journalists Against Torture Observatory that he received threatening phone calls from Edris in the week after publication, which he kept recordings of but chose not to disclose to the public at the time. The journalist said he intends to file a complaint with prosecutors against Edris about the threats.

An appeal against the two-year prison sentence against Journalists' Syndicate leaders Yehia Qallash, Khaled al-Balshy, and Gamal Abdel Rahim on charges of harboring a fugitive, has been scheduled for December 25, according to reports. The three are currently on bail. The sentence came after months of tension between the Journalists' Syndicate and the government. The Ministry of Interior accused the group's leaders of calling for anti-government protests and CPJ documented a police raid on the Syndicate's headquarters in May, during which journalists were arrested.

Separately, a Giza criminal court barred members of the press from entering the courtroom November 24 to cover a hearing in the trial of six defendants accused of the attempted assassination of a judge, according to reports. No reason for the order was given.

Sisi: 'People talk as they please'

During a visit to Lisbon last week, President el-Sisi asserted that he supports freedom of expression. "Look at the press and media in Egypt and you will find people talk as they please," he said in an interview with Portuguese broadcaster RTP. Egyptian TV ran the interview in Arabic on November 22.

Speaking about the case against the Journalists' Syndicate leaders, el-Sisi said it was important to note this was a criminal case and nothing to do with their journalism.

Syria and Egypt

In an official statement yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied reports that Egypt has sent an air force unit to Syria to assist President Bashar Assad's military. The reports, which were carried by Iranian and Gulf Arab outlets, cited a November 24 article in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir.

The ministry's statement read, "These claims only exist in the imagination of those promoting them, and we all know what their aims are."

Most Egyptian papers did not run the reports that alleged air force units had been sent to Syria, and published only the ministry's refutation. An anti-terrorism law adopted in 2015 criminalizes the publication of information about counterterrorism efforts by the armed forces if it contradicts official statements.

President el-Sisi expressed support for Assad's government in his interview with the Portuguese broadcaster RTP. Egypt's position on the Syrian conflict has come under scrutiny by foreign leaders and the international press in recent months, causing tensions with Saudi Arabia.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect that the report in As-Safir was published November 24.]

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 27tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272722016-11-28T17:04:29Z2016-12-01T16:14:27Z Wire reporter releasedPolice in southeastern Mardin province today released Fethi Balaman, the leftist daily newspaper Evrensel reported. Police on November 29 detained the former reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency, which the government on October 31 ordered closed by emergency decree. [December 1, 2016]...Özgür Öğret/CPJ Turkey Representative

Wire reporter releasedPolice in southeastern Mardin province today released Fethi Balaman, the leftist daily newspaper Evrenselreported. Police on November 29 detained the former reporter for the pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency, which the government on October 31 ordered closed by emergency decree.

[December 1, 2016]

]]>
Police detain website editor Police in the western Turkish town on Marmaris yesterday detained Vedat Beki, editor of Sözcü 18, a regional news website for Çankırı Province, Turkish media citing the İhlas News Agency (İHA) reported. Prosecutors in Çankırı have for nine months sought his arrest on suspicion that he is a follower of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and parallel state structure in Turkey that it accuses of masterminding July's failed military coup. Beki will be transferred to Çankırı to face those charges, according to press reports.

Police detain wire reporter Police in the southeastern town of Kızıltepe yesterday detained Fethi Balaman, a former reporter for the shuttered, pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), the daily newspaper Özgürlükçü Demokrasireported. The reasons for the journalist's detention were not immediately clear, but Turkish authorities have persistently pursued DİHA journalists on charges that they produced propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classes as a terrorist organization. The government on October 31 used emergency powers it assumed after July's failed military coup to order the news agency closed by decree.

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression reports on Turkish media crackdown U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye reported on his recent visit to Turkey in a guest article for Reuters headlined, "The high price of Turkey's 'witch-burning' crackdown."

Court bans reporting dormitory fireThe Aladağ Court of Penal Peace banned "any kind of news or interviews" in print, visual, internet and social media regarding last night's deadly fire at a school dormitory for girls from villages without schools, the government broadcast regulator, the RTÜK, announced. The RTÜK said the ban would remain in place until an investigation into the fire was complete, so that "the investigation could be run in a secret and healthier way, [to protect] public health, social order, and public security." At least 11 girls died in the fire and 22 others were injured, the BBC reported.

[November 30, 2016]

Police detain radio reporter attempting to cover mining accident Police in Şirvan, in Turkey's southeastern Siirt Province, detained Hatice Kamer--a reporter for the BBC who also worked for the U.S.-government-funded Voice of America's Kurdish-language service under the pen name Khajijan Farqin--for a day as she attempted to report on a November 17 mining accident, according topressreports.

Court sentences wire reporters to four years in prison on terrorism charges Mardin's Second Court for Serious Crimes sentenced Meltem Oktay and Uğur Akgül, two reporters for the shuttered, pro-Kurdish Dicle News Agency (DİHA), to four years in prison each on charges of producing propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classes as a terrorist group, in connection with material they published to social media websites the daily newspaper Özgürlükçü Demokrasireported on November 25. Police detained the two in April. Akgül was swiftly released pending trial; Oktay was released pending trial in August. The court acquitted both of the charge of being members of a terrorist organization. Both are free, pending appeal, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi reported.

Cumhuriyet discontinues exiled editor's columns The daily newspaper Cumhuriyet discontinued the column of its former editor, Can Dündar, the news website T24reported on November 25. Dündar, whom the Committee to Protect Journalists on November 22 honored with its International Press Freedom Award, went into exile in August after spending 92 days in jail in connection with the newspaper's reporting, saying he did not believe he could get a fair trial under the state of emergency. Ten Cumhuriyet journalists have subsequently been jailed pending trial. T24 reported that the decision to discontinue Dündar's column was taken in part because a court has cited Dündar's flight as justification to deny those journalists' appeals of the orders jailing them pending trial.

Freed American journalist describes months in Turkish prison Lindsey Snell, a freelance American journalist jailed for two months in Turkey on suspicion of espionage after escaping from Syria, described her experiences in twoarticles published on November 25 and November 26. CPJ worked quietly to help secure her release.

Court orders news website censoredAnkara's Ninth Court of Penal Peace Citizen ordered access to the website dokuz sekiz haber, which is run by volunteer journalists, blocked, the website reported on Twitter on November 25.

Shuttered radio station resumes broadcast via satellite Yön Radio, which the government ordered closed by emergency decree following a failed military coup in July, resumed broadcasting as a satellite radio station, the leftist daily newspaper Evrenselreported on November 26.

[November 28, 2016]

]]>
Hunger-striking journalist injured in prison uprisingtag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272662016-11-21T16:56:22Z2016-11-22T17:49:01Z News of the hospitalization of an imprisoned photojournalist after security forces cracked down on an uprising in Borg al-Arab prison tops the list of attacks on the press last week in Egypt. Also last week: Two leaders of the Journalists' Syndicate were sentenced to two years in prison each...CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Staff

News of the hospitalization of an imprisoned photojournalist after security forces cracked down on an uprising in Borg al-Arab prison tops the list of attacks on the press last week in Egypt. Also last week: Two leaders of the Journalists' Syndicate were sentenced to two years in prison each but remain free on bail; a presidential pardon included two journalists who had nearly completed their prison terms; a court ordered the release of Ismail Alexandrani, but the prosecution successfully appealed; and finally, Mahmoud Abou Zeid Shawkan was at last allowed to tell the judge hearing his case that he is a photojournalist.

]]>
Photojournalist hospitalized after prison uprisingReports of violence emerged last week from Borg al-Arab prison, which is near the coastal city of Alexandria, after protests by prisoners demanding better conditions and an end to alleged abuse by guards. In response to the protests, prison authorities brought in security forces who used water canons, tear gas, and other measures to put down the uprising, according to press reports and testimonies from the families of prisoners. They also barred prisoners from family visitations or from leaving their cells for daily exercise.

Photojournalist Mahmoud Abdel Nabi was among the prisoners injured, according to rights activists. After being denied his weekly visitation on November 12, Abdel Nabi's father was able to visit him on November 19, according to the press freedom group Journalists Against Torture Observatory. He found the journalist had been taken to the Borg al-Arab prison hospital with cuts and bruises, and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Before his hospitalization, Abdel Nabi had been on hunger strike to protest alleged abuse and bad conditions in the prison.

Last week the prison authority began transferring hundreds of prisoners from Borg al-Arab to other prisons, including Gamasa prison and Minya prison, in response to the protests, according to press reports.

Presidential pardons include two journalists at the end of their prison termsTelevision presenter Islam al-Behery and photojournalist Mohamed Ali Salah were among 82 prisoners who received presidential pardons last week. Al-Behery was serving a one-year prison sentence on charges of blasphemy, which was scheduled to end on December 28. Salah, who was arrested in December 2013, is serving a three-year sentence on charges of protesting. His sentence was also due to end in December 2016.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's office formed a committee to review cases of youth detained on "political charges" as well as humanitarian cases in October, after President al-Sisi attended a National Youth Conference in the Sinai resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh.

Court orders release of journalist Ismail Alexandrani, prosecution appealsA Cairo court on November 20 ordered the release of Ismail Alexandrani, a writer and researcher with expertise on the insurgency in northern Sinai, but the prosecution quickly appealed the decision, according to press reports. The appeal was accepted on November 22, meaning the journalist will remain in pre-trial detention for another 45 day period. Alexandrani was arrested in November 2015 upon arriving at Cairo International Airport. He is charged with belonging to a banned group and publishing false news.

Shawkan tells court he is a photojournalistIn an unusual move, a judge allowed imprisoned photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid to speak to him directly, according to the Journalists Against Torture Observatory, which observed the hearing on Saturday. Abou Zeid, who is better known as Shawkan, was escorted out of the glass cage in which he and the other defendants are held during court proceedings and brought before the judge's bench. Judge Hassan Farid asked him one question: "What is your profession?"

Shawkan replied that he is a photojournalist and was taken back to the defendants' cage. The court adjourned until December 10.

The journalist is being tried on charges of rioting and terrorism along with 749 other defendants in relation to the August 2013 dispersal of the Raba'a al-Adawiya sit-in. Shawkan was photographing security forces violently dispersing the protest when he was arrested. At least 800 people were killed in the dispersal of that protest, according to human rights groups.

Syndicate Leaders SentencedA court in Cairo on November 19 sentenced Yehia Qallash, the head of the Journalists' Syndicate, and board members Khaled al-Balshy and Gamal Abdel Rahim to two years in prison on charges of harboring a fugitive, CPJ reported at the time. The court suspended the sentence, pending appeal, for a fine of 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US$628) each.

Al-Balshy published a statement on social media after the verdict was announced. "I hope that this verdict will be dealt with as part of the larger issue of freedom of the press, at the heart of which are the cases of our imprisoned colleagues...I hope we will not be distracted from them as our priorities," the statement read.

The three syndicate leaders spoke to reporters gathered at the Journalists' Syndicate's headquarters in central Cairo ahead of the verdict and said that the syndicate would hold an emergency meeting to figure out next steps.

The press have been banned from attending court hearings in the trial, which is based on charges brought by the public prosecutor during a May 2016 standoff between the syndicate and the government, after police raided the building to arrest two journalists who had sought sanctuary inside. The three still face charges of publishing false news about the raid.

Government-owned and international media reported that this was the first time a Syndicate chairman had been tried in the 75-year history of the institution.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The eighth paragraph of this text has been updated to include that a court on November 22 accepted prosecutors' appeal of the court order to release Ismail Alexandrani.

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 20tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272642016-11-21T15:11:19Z2016-11-23T18:27:02Z After six months, wire reporter released pending trial Hakkari's Second Court for Serious Crimes today ordered Şermin Soydan, a reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish DİHA news agency, released on probation the leftist newspaper Evrensel reported....Committee to Protect Journalists

After six months, wire reporter released pending trial Hakkari's Second Court for Serious Crimes today ordered Şermin Soydan, a reporter for the shuttered pro-Kurdish DİHA news agency, released on probation the leftist newspaper Evrensel reported.

]]>
Soydan had been jailed since May 12, pending trial on charges of "obtaining secret state documents" stemming from her story on the local government's preparation for a military operation targeting fighters from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the southeastern town of Yüksekova, CPJ reported at the time.

The journalist will still stand trial. Her next court date is schedule for December, Evrensel reported. Prosecutors are seeking a life sentence.

The government ordered Soydan's former employer, the DİHA news agency, closed by emergency decree on September 28, CPJ reported at the time.

Security officers prevent reporters from reporting on mine accident Military police prevented reporters from the DİHABER news agency from filming near the site of a copper mine collapse in the eastern town of Şirvan, in Siirt province, Evrenselreported yesterday. The accident left at least seven miners dead and at least 16 trapped underground, according to press reports.

Military police at the site ran background checks on the reporters and threatened to arrest them if they did not stop filming in the area, Evrensel reported.

Private security guards also interrupted three reporters--Evrensel journalists Serpil Bek and Hasan Akbaş, and Vecdi Erbay, a reporter for the news website Duvar--as they were talking to miners' families, Evrensel reported. A security guard told the journalists, "the governor's office has prohibited interviewing families. I asked the company director. It is forbidden to report," according to Evrensel's report.

Court indicts newspaper board members on terrorism charges Istanbul's 23rd Court for Serious Crimes today dismissed charges of "destroying the unity of the nation" and seeking to damage the territorial integrity of the country against linguist Necmiye Alpay and author Aslı Erdoğan, but ordered them kept in pretrial detention on charges of "being members of a [terrorist] organization" for being former board members of the newspaper Özgür Gündem, which authorities closed in August, saying it produced PKK propaganda.

Their trial is scheduled to begin on December 29, the ETHA news agency reported.

[November 23, 2016]

Government closes eight newspapers, radio station by decreeThe Turkish government today ordered eight newspapers and a radio station closed by decree, using emergency powers it assumed after July's failed military coup.

The decree, published in Turkey's Official Gazette said that the media outlets "are considered by the National Security Council as related, belong to or are in contact with terror organizations and structures that are considered by the National Security Council as acting against national security, [and] are shut down."

DİHABER reported that the court considered Işık's posts to social media websites as evidence that she "propagandized for a [terrorist] organization."

Journalists stand trial in connection with support for shuttered newspaper Istanbul's 22nd Court for Serious Crimes today heard arguments in the trial on terrorism charges of veteran journalist Tugrul Eryilmaz, former editor of the shuttered newspaper Radikal's weekly culturalsupplement Radikal İki, and Çilem Küçükkeleş, a former TV producer and member of parliament for the opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP), the news website Bianetreported.

The charges stem from the shuttered pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem's coverage on the days each symbolically acted as co-editor-in-chief of the newspaper to protest the government's relentless judicial harassment of the daily's staff before it ordered the newspaper closed by decree in August. Dozens of journalists, academics, activists, and public figures took part in the campaign to show solidarity with the newspaper in the spring of 2016. İnan Kızılkaya, the jailed former responsible news editor for the newspaper, is a co-defendant in each case.

News reports said Işık was with Aycan Irmez, a member of parliament for the opposition People's Democratic Party (HDP) when she was detained. Police did not immediately say why she was detained.

Swedish journalists briefly detained Police in Turkey's eastern Diyarbakır province on November 19 detained two Swedish television journalists, the lefist daily Evrenselreported. The newspaper reported that the journalists, whom it identified only by their initials, L.N.B. and R.A.S. , were detained for recording filming in a military zone.

The police unit that deals with foreigners released the two the same day, Evrensel reported. According to the newspaper, the journalists had on November 18 attempted to travel to the nearby province of Şırnak, but were prevented from entering the city.

Columnist detained, released Police in the coastal city of İzmir last night detained Cafer Solgun, a former columnist for the shuttered daily newspaper Meydan, as part of an open criminal case for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a column he did not write, Solgun announced from his Twitter account.

"They found me in İzmir, where I was (visiting) to attend a conference. They handcuffed me and kept me at police station in Alsancak. Then for hours I waited to see the judge on duty, together with people who committed ordinary crimes," Solgun told the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Authorities last year prosecuted Solgun for a column written by fellow Meydan columnist Yılmaz Odabaşı, but mistakenly published on the newspaper's front page under Solgun's byline.

The editors apologized for the mistake and corrected it in both the print and online editions of the newspaper, but authorities continued to prosecute both Solgun and Odabaşı on charges of "insulting the president."

Solgun told CPJ that a court had issued a warrant for his arrest for not having testified in the case.

"I was not even invited to testify at the court, despite their having my public address in their database," Solgun said.

The court in İzmir released Solgun this afternoon.

[November 21, 2016]

]]>
In China, foreign correspondents continue to face harassment, restrictionstag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272502016-11-15T22:00:29Z2016-11-15T22:08:25ZConditions for foreign correspondents in China remain difficult, with journalists reporting cases of harassment, surveillance, and restrictions on where they can work, according to findings by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China....Yaqiu Wang/CPJ Asia Research Associate
Conditions for foreign correspondents in China remain difficult, with journalists reporting cases of harassment, surveillance, and restrictions on where they can work, according to findings by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China.]]>
Ninety-eight percent of respondents to the annual survey, which examines conditions for the foreign press in China, said working conditions failed to meet international standards. The overall climate for foreign media working in China has not improved in the past year, with 29 percent of the 112 journalists who responded to the survey saying conditions have deteriorated.

The survey found "an alarming new form of harassment against reporters," with journalists being called in for meetings with the Ministry of State Security. Another issue the club highlighted was "mounting difficulties in securing interviews with knowledgeable sources." China's intensified crackdown on all aspects of civil society and the characterization of foreign media as being a government tool have deterred experts from speaking to foreign media.

Other findings include:

Cases of interference, harassment, and violence by authorities against foreign media.

Attempts by authorities to discourage coverage of sensitive subjects.

Intimidation and harassment of sources.

Restrictions on journalists' movements in border and ethnic minority regions.

Pressure directed at editors and managers outside China.

Surveillance and censorship.

Earlier this year, CPJ shared the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China's annual findings on visa issues. That survey found delays in issuing visas had decreased but authorities continued to threaten correspondents with having a visa cancelled or not renewed in an attempt to discourage reporting on sensitive issues.

The full findings of the latest Foreign Correspondents' Club of China can be found here.

]]>
Journalists detained during Egypt's day of proteststag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272482016-11-14T20:42:37Z2016-11-15T09:05:50Z Four journalists were detained November 11 amid a heavy deployment of security forces in Egypt's cities in response to calls for nationwide protests over economic reforms. The protests were fewer and smaller than anticipated, but journalists were still harassed and, in some cases, arrested, according to local and international...CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program

Four journalists were detained November 11 amid a heavy deployment of security forces in Egypt's cities in response to calls for nationwide protests over economic reforms. The protests were fewer and smaller than anticipated, but journalists were still harassed and, in some cases, arrested, according to local and international media. One journalist remains in custody. Separately, a gag order on an investigation into the funding of civil society organizations remains in place, and courts are due to hear two criminal defamation cases brought by public officials against reporters.

]]>
Friday protest arrests

Photojournalist Abdelrahman Taher was arrested November 11 while covering a march in Haram, in the Giza district that borders Cairo. Taher appeared before homeland security prosecutors the following day, and state prosecutors on November 13, according to local press freedom groups and news reports. State prosecutors charged Taher with belonging to a terrorist group, participating in an illegal protest, and obstructing traffic.

Taher was previously arrested in February 2015 and held in pre-trial detention for almost a year on charges of protesting, according to press freedom groups. He was released from custody in January 2016, with charges still pending. At the time of his latest arrest Taher was covering the Friday marches for the website, Al Sahm News, according to statements by the Journalists' Syndicate, the official union for the Egyptian press.

At least three other journalists were detained the same day. Hesham Mohamed, who works for the newspaper al-Watan, was detained for an hour after photographing marches in Haram after Friday prayers, according to local reports.

Ahmed Lotfy Sayyed, who works for the news website Masrawywas detained for an hour and a half after taking photographs of empty streets around Tahrir Square, he told the press freedom group Journalists Against Torture Observatory.

Editor Karima Hassan was also detained while covering Tahrir, according to her outlet, Al-Masry Al-Youm. She was stopped by police after photographing a small group of people chanting in support of the security forces and the Egyptian government. Police held Hassan in a residential building in the square, then took her to a police van, where an officer questioned Hassan and went through her phone and tablet before releasing her.

The Journalists' Syndicate appealed to the Ministry of Interior on behalf of Sayyed, Mohamed, and Taher to secure their release, according to news reports.

Gag order remains in place

An administrative court decided November 8 that it was not within its jurisdiction to rule in a case seeking to end a media gag order of an investigation into foreign funding of human rights organizations, according to news reports. The investigation, which dates back to 2011, was re-opened in March 2016, leading to an outcry by local and international civil society. The order, issued in March by the head of the judicial committee investigating the case, prohibits the publishing of any details of the investigation, except for official statements issued by the committee.

Journalists in court

On November 10, a Cairo criminal court heard a defamation suit brought by Major General Ibrahim Abdel-Atti against journalists at the weekly Sawt al-Ummah, according to news reports. The complaint was brought over an article published in the paper in May 2014 about a set of devices that Abdel-Atti and other military officials claimed were able to detect and cure Hepatitis C, AIDS, and other illnesses. Abdel-Atti is suing Antar Abdellatif, who wrote the article, and Sawt al-Ummah's editor-in-chief Abdelhalim Kandil over claims that the article harmed his reputation and carried false information, according to reports. If convicted, the journalists could face prison sentences and heavy fines. The next court hearing is due to be held December 4.

In a separate case, two journalists and an executive editor at the privately owned newspaper al-Bawaba were referred to criminal court November 12, on charges of insulting the office of the public prosecutor. The charges date back to al-Bawaba's coverage of remarks made by former Minister of Culture Gaber Asfour at a freedom of expression conference in March 2016. The Supreme Judicial Council, which includes the Public Prosecutor, claimed that Asfour's remarks were insulting to the public prosecutor's office, according to statements by al-Bawaba executive editor Mohamed al-Baz. Asfour is indicted in the case alongside journalists Nidal Mamdouh and Mohamed Hamdy Abu Saad.

Al-Baz, Mamdouh, and Abu Saad face an additional charge of falsely assuming the identity of journalists because they are not members of the Journalists' Syndicate, according to local press freedom groups. Membership to the syndicate is not compulsory for Egyptian journalists.

CPJ could not determine when the next hearing is scheduled to take place.

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 13tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272452016-11-14T15:53:25Z2016-11-18T15:15:58Z Two years in prison for newspaper editor Diyarbakır's Fourth Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced İsmail Çoban, responsible news editor of the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat to two years and four months in prison for "propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization," the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the Turkish...Committee to Protect Journalists

Two years in prison for newspaper editor Diyarbakır's Fourth Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced İsmail Çoban, responsible news editor of the Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat to two years and four months in prison for "propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization," the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which the Turkish government classifies as a terrorist group.

]]>
The court found Çoban guilty for material published in the February 21, 2014, edition of Azadiya Welat, the leftist newspaper Evrenselreported.

The government last month used emergency powers it assumed after a July 2016 failed military coup to order Azadiya Welat closed by decree.

UN Special Rapporteur calls on Turkey to release jailed journalists UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression David Kaye, concluding a four-day visit to Turkey, today called on the Turkish government to release journalists jailed in the country immediately.

"Nobody should be held in detention for expressing opinions that do not constitute an actual incitement to hatred or violence," Kaye wrote in his preliminary report.

[November 18, 2016]

Newspaper editor arrested on terrorism chargesPolice in Turkey's western province of Balıkesir detained Şaban İba, a former editor of the shuttered, pro-Kurdish newspaper Özgür Gündem, the leftist newspaper Evrenselreported on its website today.

İba was detained from his home on suspicion of "being a member of a [terrorist] organization," Evrensel reported.

Police on August 16 raided Özgür Gündem's main office in Istanbul, arrested its staff and board members, implementing a court order temporarily closing the newspaper on accusations that it was a mouthpiece for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey classes as a terrorist organization and sought to incite separatism. The government used emergency powers it assumed after a failed July 2016 military coup to order the newspaper and 14 other media outlets closed by decree.

[November 16, 2016]

Three journalists tried on terrorism charges Istanbul's 14th Court for Serious Crimes today began trying Huseyin Aykol, the former editor of the shuttered, pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, and Oncu Akgul, a journalist for the socialist newspaper Alınteri, on charges of spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the leftist daily Evrenselreported. The court today adjourned their trial until February 21, the newspaper reported.

The charges against Akgul stem from the Özgür Gündem's coverage on the day she symbolically acted as co-editor of the newspaper to protest authorities' relentless judicial harassment of the newspaper's staff before police raided and shuttered its office on August 16.

Some 50 people face prosecution for participating in a protest that saw dozens of journalists, academics, and activists show solidarity with the newspaper by taking turns acting as co-editor of the newspaper for a day. Courts have indicted 36 participants, who now face trial, according to Evrensel.

İnan Kızılkaya, the newspaper's former responsible news editor, is a codefendant in each of those 36 cases.

[November 15, 2016]

Newspaper CEO jailed pending trial on terrorism charges Istanbul's Ninth Court of Penal Peace late on November 11 ordered Akın Atalay, CEO of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, jailed pending trial on charges of being member of an armed terrorist group.

Atalay was in Berlin when authorities jailed nine Cumhuriyet journalists and directors pending trial on charges of two rival organizations the Turkish government considers terrorist groups: The Kurdistan Workers' Party and the Hizmet Movement--or the Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), as the government calls it. Police detained him as he disembarked from his flight returning to Istanbul on November 11.

French journalist deported Turkish authorities last night deported Olivier Bertrand, a reporter with the French news website Les Jours, the website reported.

Police in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep on November 11 detained Bertrand as he interviewed refugees from Syria, prompting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to call publicly that the French citizen be released, according to Reuters.

Bertrand was arrested because he was not accredited as a journalist with Turkish authorities, the DHA News Agency reported in a report carried by Hürriyet's website.

[November 14, 2016]

]]>
For Zambia's press, election year brings assaults and shut down orderstag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272322016-11-08T21:31:42Z2016-11-08T21:47:21Z Zambia's press has come under sustained assault in this election year, with station licenses suspended, journalists harassed or arrested for critical coverage, and one of the country's largest privately owned papers, The Post, being provisionally liquidated in a move that its editors say is political motivated....Angela Quintal/CPJ Africa Program Coordinator

Zambia's press has come under sustained assault in this election year, with station licenses suspended, journalists harassed or arrested for critical coverage, and one of the country's largest privately owned papers, ThePost, being provisionally liquidated in a move that its editors say is political motivated.

]]>
The Zambian chapter of the non-governmental organization, Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa-Zambi), noted in a report that the past few months have been turbulent for press freedom in Zambia. Journalists with whom CPJ spoke echoed those findings. They said they believe President Edgar Lungu and his allies have been emboldened by his re-election, and that the situation for the privately owned media has continued to deteriorate.

CPJ documented several instances of harassment and attacks on the press in the lead up to and after the elections, including the Zambia Revenue Authority closing the offices and printing press of ThePost in June over unpaid taxes, and the broadcasting regulator, the Independent Broadcasting Authority, ordering the privately owned stations Komboni Radio, Muvi TV, and Radio Itezhi Tezhi to be suspended in August for posing a risk to "peace and national security." The radio and television stations are now back on air, and the amount of tax allegedly owed by The Post is disputed by the owners. Its editors told CPJ this week that they believe it was a politically motivated move to silence the critical outlet.

Other cases include:

In April, Joan Chirwa and Mukosa Funga of The Post were charged with defamation over an article about the president, published the previous year, the rights group, PEN reported.

On July 8, police arrested David Kashiki, a photographer for The Post, when he tried to take pictures of suspected police brutality at the offices of the main opposition party, United Party for National Development (UPND), according to Misa-Zambia.

On August 3, Elijah Mumba, a reporter for the daily, New Vison, was beaten while on assignment, allegedly by a member of the UPND, according to Misa-Zambia When the media watchdog issued a statement about the attack, which alleged police inaction, its chairperson Hellen Mwale was summoned for questioning.

Lesa Kasoma, the owner of Komboni Radio, told CPJ she was assaulted by police outside her station on October 5, after the suspension order had ended. She is currently on trial for allegedly assaulting a police officer.

Police on October 13 questioned Prime TV managing director Gerald Shawa and station manager Makokwa Kozi over a letter they broadcast from police, that demanded the station hand over video footage recorded at an opposition leader's press briefing, according to reports. Police spokesperson Esther Katongo told local media the letter was classified. Shawa and Kozi were cautioned for leaking the letter to the public.

On November 5, Njenje Chizu, a journalist with Muvi TV, was beaten by police in Kasama when more than 100 officers raided the station to prevent UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema and his deputy Geoffrey Mwamba from appearing, according to reports. In an account of the assault, Chizu said he was punched by police, who broke his camera and charged him with conduct likely to cause the breach of peace and fined him.

The office of the president did not immediately respond to CPJ's requests for comment. Lungu's deputy told Parliament on October 13 that the president does not order police to beat up critics.

"Things have moved from bad to worse," said Chirwa, managing editor of ThePost. The paper has been operating from a secret location since the Zambian Revenue Authority closed its offices and printing press. The revenue authority says the move is not political, but Chirwa said she believes otherwise.

"The government of Edgar Lungu is the first in Zambia's history to have closed a newspaper, two radio stations, and a television station in a space of four months," said Chirwa. "This is alarming and obviously tells what kind of government we have-­‑intolerant to criticism and ready to break the law with impunity."

ThePost was provisionally liquidated last week after two former employees sued it for allegedly owing money to them, a claim the newspaper denies. Fred M'membe, its editor-in-chief and a CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee, said he believes this is part of the government's attempts -- through its surrogates -- to shut down the newspaper.

Chirwa told CPJ that the newspaper would challenge the attempt to liquidate it. "The Zambian government's desire to annihilate critical, independent press is extremely alarming and a cause for serious concern among journalists and advocates of a free press worldwide," she said.

Andrew Sakala, president of the independent Press Association of Zambia, described the liquidation as one of the darkest moments in Zambia's journalism history. "From its inception about 25 years ago, ThePost has played a critical role in the democratic process. It has been a platform for alternative voices and provided valuable information on various issues to the citizenry," he said.

Although it was difficult to directly link the anti-media freedom actions by state agencies to the government, public pronouncements by government officials suggest there was tacit approval for their actions, Sakala said. "In some cases these agencies move into action immediately after complaints by government and ruling party officials. The suspensions of Muvi TV and Komboni radio is a case in point. The [Independent Broadcasting Authority] took action immediately after government officials complained," he added.

Sakala said, "The situation is compounded by the fact that we have a lot of anti-media and anti-democracy laws which were mainly left on the statutes by the former colonial masters. These were laws that were primarily created to stifle the freedom of the people especially during the independence struggle."

For Kasoma, the owner of Komboni Radio, the suspension order was only the start of the problems she faces. Kasoma said police assaulted and arrested her when she arrived at Komboni's office to meet her station manager for a discussion on how best to resume operations.

"What happened to me was inhuman and should not happen to anyone at all. I have suffered physical, mental and psychological torture and my family has not been spared in some of these," said Kasoma. She appeared in court on October 31 for allegedly resisting arrest and assaulting a policeman.

In her interview with CPJ and other media, Kasoma said she bit an officer in self-defense while being manhandled by him and five of his colleagues, some of whom she alleged were intoxicated. She said she was stripped half-naked, in the presence of members of the community and staff, and was held at a police station until her lawyers freed her on bail. When the assault on Kasoma was raised during parliamentary question time. Vice-President Inonge Wina defended the police, repeating that Kasoma had attacked the officers. Days later Wina apologized to Kasoma in Parliament, saying she had not been apprised of all the facts at the time.

Kasoma's next court hearing is due to take place November 21.

Local civil society organizations have written to President Lungu about the state of press freedom in Zambia. At a press briefing, Sara Longwe, chair of the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council, an umbrella body of groups, said there appeared to be a "systematic move towards a one party system" in which only voices seen to praise the ruling party and the state were given space and freedom.

Lungu maintains that he is a "staunch defender" of media freedom. He told a radio station that if he did not believe in media freedom, he would have closed some outlets when he was voted into office. He also defended the action against Muvi TV at a meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, saying the broadcasting authority had no choice but to suspend its license because the station was inciting hate speech.

]]>
In Egypt, censorship, an arrest, and court hearings for journalists tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272302016-11-07T19:22:03Z2016-11-15T09:04:16Z Restrictions against the press continue in Egypt, with ongoing trials of journalists, some of whom have been in detention for more than three years, allegations that a TV station was ordered to drop a planned broadcast of an interview with a former official, and a reporter detained while trying...CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program

Restrictions against the press continue in Egypt, with ongoing trials of journalists, some of whom have been in detention for more than three years, allegations that a TV station was ordered to drop a planned broadcast of an interview with a former official, and a reporter detained while trying to cover a sensitive story. Egypt has been a leading jailer of journalists for more than a year, and the country's press is regularly harassed. CPJ has documented the following press freedom violations in the past week:

]]>
Reporter arrested in Alexandria

Alhussein Fouad, a reporter for the privately owned daily Al Masry Al Youm, was arrested November 5 while filming interviews about the rise in fuel prices in Alexandria, and held in a police station overnight, according to his outlet. Authorities did not give the reporter a reason for his arrest.

"90 Minutes" interview cut

An interview with Egypt's former top auditor Hesham Geneina on Al Mehwar TV, which was canceled the day it was due to be broadcast, has led to reports in Egypt's press that the station was allegedly ordered by authorities to not air the segment. Al Mehwar TV canceled the interview, recorded with presenter Moataz Demerdash for the show "90 Minutes," an hour before its scheduled air time on October 29. In a statement on October 30, the channel said the segment was dropped due to "legal responsibilities" related to the case against Geneina, and that it would air the segment once that case had been resolved. Geneina is standing trial on a charge of spreading false news after alleging in interviews that the country had experienced massive losses due to government corruption. Mada Masrreported that the interview, which the channel had been promoting in the lead up to October 29, was canceled at the request of General Abbas Kamel, head of the office of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Court sessions for jailed journalists

A criminal court today postponed a hearing to renew the pre-trial detention of three journalists--Hamdy Mokhtar, Mohamed Hassan, and Osama al-Bishbishi--until tomorrow, according to local press freedom groups. The photojournalists, who work for local outlets, were arrested while filming interviews with passerby on September 26, and have been charged with publishing false news. The journalists were moved from Kasr el-Nil police station, where they had been held since their arrest, to Tora Istiqbal prison on October 29.

Yesterday, a court session was held in the retrial of Abdullah al-Fakharany, Samhi Mustafa, and other journalists who were sentenced to life in prison in the case known as "Raba'a Operations Room," local press freedom groups reported. Al-Fakharany and Mustafa worked for Rassd, a news outlet that supported the ousted Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi. At least four other journalists are being tried in the same case on a charge of forming a media operations room to support the banned Muslim Brotherhood group. In December 2015, the Cairo Court of Cassation accepted the defendants' appeals and ordered the case be retried due to insufficient evidence. The next court session is due to be held December 3.

In an opinion published November 3, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that the detention of photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, better known as Shawkan, is arbitrary. Shawkan has been in jail since August 2013. During his latest court session on November 1, the journalist's lawyers submitted a request to the court that Shawkan be released on medical grounds, the lawyers told CPJ. They argued that he has been held in pretrial detention for more than three years, which exceeds the two-year legal limit on detention in such cases. The next session will be held on November 19. Shawkan is being honored with CPJ's International Press Freedom Award on November 22.

On November 2, the Journalists' Syndicate, Egypt's official press union, submitted a list of detained journalists to the Committee on Detained Youth, a group formed at President Sisi's request after he attended a National Youth Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh last week. The committee is mandated to review cases of pre-trial detention on charges related to freedom of expression. The syndicate's list includes 29 journalists, including Hisham Jaafar, director of the Mada Foundation for Media Development who was arrested in October 2015; Ismail Alexandrani, a freelance journalist arrested in November 2015; and Shawkan, who was arrested in 2013. CPJ could not determine what power the committee has to secure the release of journalists in pre-trial detention.

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of November 6tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272292016-11-07T18:05:39Z2016-11-11T16:50:30Z Opposition newspaper CEO detained Police at Istanbul's Atatürk airport detained Akın Atalay, CEO of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, as he disembarked from his flight from Berlin today, Turkey's official Anadolu News Agency reported. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office for Press Crimes had issued a warrant for his arrest...Committee to Protect Journalists

Opposition newspaper CEO detained Police at Istanbul's Atatürk airport detained Akın Atalay, CEO of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, as he disembarked from his flight from Berlin today, Turkey's official Anadolu News Agency reported. The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office for Press Crimes had issued a warrant for his arrest in the scope of authorities' investigation into the newspaper on charges of producing propaganda for two rival groups the Turkish government lists as terrorist organizations: the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and what the government calls the Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization (FETÖ).

]]>
Police last week searched the executive's home and jailed more than a dozen Cumhuriyet journalists and directors. A court subsequently ordered nine of those detained jailed, pending trial on charges of "committing crimes in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member of it."

Bahri Bayram Belen, the newspaper's lawyer, told the Anadolu News Agency that he expects Atalay to be jailed pending trial as well.

Magazine editor sentenced to prison on terrorism charges Istanbul's 14th Court for Serious Crimes yesterday sentenced Aslı Ceren Aslan, the managing editor of the socialist magazine Özgür Gelecek (Free Future), to two years and six months in prison on charges of "propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization," according to court records reviewed by CPJ.

The court records show that prosecutors alleged that specific articles in the magazine spread propaganda for the PKK.

Magazine journalist jailed pending trial on terrorism charges Istanbul's Second Court of Penal Peace on November 8, 2016, arraigned Toğay Okay, a reporter with Ozgur Gelecek, on charges of being a member of a terrorist organization, according to court records reviewed by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Police arrested him on October 27, the magazine wrote on Twitter.

The charges stem from his coverage of the funerals of three fighters from two outlawed armed groups, the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist-Leninist (TİKKO) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP).

Okay said in his testimony that he attended the funerals as a reporter, but that he also personally knew one of the deceased, Cengiz İçli, because he would visit a publishing house where Okay worked when İçli was a student.

News website censored Turkish regulators last night blocked access to the socialist news website sendika.org, the website announced on its Twitter. The website said it was the 13th time authorities had censored its site. The last time was on October 24, sendika.orgreported.

In a statement published on its website, Turkey's Information Technologies Institution (BTK) said access to the site had been blocked as an "administrative measure," without elaborating.

The news website continues to publish reports from the alternative address sendika12.org.

Minister: VPN internet access blocked to fight terrorism Turkish Communications Minister Ahmet Arslan today said that the government is blocking access to Virtual Private Network (VPN) services--which allow internet users to browse the internet via a remote server, thereby evading online censorship in their countries--only to prevent the services to be used for terrorism.

Arslan said blocking the public's access to social media and the internet could be necessary for public security. He asserted that France had taken similar precautions in the past.

[November 11, 2016]

Mehmet Baransu not provided with food, asks for hearing delayThe final hearing in a trial of Mehmet Baransu, who faces a range of charges and has been jailed since March 2015, was yesterday delayed until February 8, 2017, after Baransu alleged he was not provided with food for the entire day before the hearing and could not properly defend himself under the circumstance.

Istanbul's 10th Court for Serious Crimes was expected to issue a verdict yesterday on charges of obtaining secret documents in relation to a story that Baransu wrote for the daily Taraf in 2013.

The journalist's wife, Nesibe Baransu, told the daily Evrensel that her husband was transferred at 7 a.m. local time from the high-security Silivri prison, on the western edge of the European side of Istanbul, to the courthouse on the Asian side of the city. The hearing was supposed to start around 2:30 p.m. local time, but instead began around 6.30 p.m., she said. The prison administration is supposed to give the inmate's food to military police accompanying the defendant, but his husband was not given any food the whole day, she told Evrensel.

Nesibe Baransu also said her husband has only 20 minutes each week to see his lawyer, and they are not allowed to exchange documents, which she said is another breach of his right to defense, Evrensel reported.

Prosecutor seeks life sentence for nine in Özgür Gündem case

A prosecutor in Istanbul asked for life sentences in the case of nine journalists and executives from the pro-Kurdish daily Özgür Gündem, which was closed down by governmental decree in October.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the journalists are accused of membership in a terror organization, demolishing the country's unity, and spreading terror propaganda. In his indictment, the prosecutor alleged that the editorial policy of the newspaper aims to change the political, legal, social, and economic order in Turkey, jeopardizing the state's existence by weakening, demolishing, or seizing state authority, Anadolu reported.

Four of the nine journalists are already in jail, including editorial board members Aslı Erdoğan, a prominent novelist, and Necmiye Alpay, a well-known linguist; Editor-in-Chief İnan Kızılkaya; and responsible editor Bilir Kaya. The other five charged in the case are Eren Keskin, Ragıp Zarakolu, Filiz Koçali, Kemal Sancılı, and Bilge Akut.

[November 10, 2016]

Newspaper reporter faces terrorism charges

Prosecutors in Turkey's southeastern province of Diyarbakır have opened a criminal case against Mahmut Oral, now a journalist with the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, on charges of "propagandizing for a [terrorist] organization" in connection with a story published a year and a half ago in the local newspaper Diyarbakır Özgür Haber, Oral wrote on Twitter. Oral was the editor of Diyarbakır Özgür Haber at the time.

The investigation against Oral was opened after a police officer filed a criminal complaint against the journalist because the police officer's face can be seen clearly in a photograph run with a story on the murder of Tahir Elçi, the late head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association and a leading human rights activist, according to Oral's Twitter timeline. Oral also wrote that two of his former colleagues from Diyarbakır Özgür Haber, whom he did not name, were also suspects in the criminal case.

The charges stem from the coverage of the now-shuttered pro-Kurdish daily newspaper Özgür Gündem on the days when each symbolically acted as co-editor of the publication to protest authorities' relentless judicial harassment of its staff. A court ordered the newspaper closed and police raided its Istanbul office on August 16, CPJ reported at the time.

The court adjourned the trial of the three until January 11. They are free, pending the conclusion of their trials. The newspaper's responsible news editor, İnan Kızılkaya, is a codefendant in each case, as his position made him responsible for everything the newspaper published. He is jailed, pending the conclusion of dozens of trials against him.

[November 8, 2016]

Court jails nine newspaper journalists, directors pending trialIstanbul's Ninth Court of Penal Peace on November 4 ordered nine journalists and directors of the embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet jailed pending trial on charges of "committing a crime in support of a terrorist organization without being a member" through the newspaper's reporting, Cumhuriyet reported.

The nine--including Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief, Murat Sabuncu--are accused of aiding the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and parallel state structure within Turkey that it blames for a failed July 2016 military coup.

In addition to Sabuncu, the court jailed columnist and editorial consultant Kadri Gürsel, cartoonist Musa Kart, and Turhan Günay, the editor of Cumhuriyet's literary supplement, jailed pending trial. The court further ordered Önder Çelik, Bülent Utku, Mustafa Kemal Güngör, Güray Öz, and Hakan Kara, all members of the board of directors of the foundation that owns Cumhuriyet jailed pending trial. The court ordered columnists Aydın Engin and Hikmet Çetinkaya released on probation.

Turkey attempts to block tools for circumventing online censorship: report Turkey late on November 4 attempted to prevent internet users in Turkey from circumventing the government's censorship of social media websites by using software to bypass the normal channels for accessing the internet, according to press reports.

Government tells Kurdish cartoon TV channel to use Turkish The Turkish government on November 5 reversed its September 28 decree closing Zarok TV, which broadcasts children's cartoons dubbed into Kurdish, and Yön Radyo, using emergency powers it assumed after a July 2016 failed military coup.

The government urged Zarok TV to "reflect Turkish culture" in its editorial policy and to use the Turkish language.

[November 7, 2016]

]]>
'It's worse this time,' says photographer shot by police during latest Kashmir unrest tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272122016-11-02T17:44:11Z2016-11-02T18:06:51Z For four months, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has been under a curfew imposed after protests broke out when Burhan Wani, a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-independence militant organization that advocates for Kashmir's independence from India, was killed in clashes with the Indian army. Journalists have...Aayush Soni/CPJ India Correspondent

For four months, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has been under a curfew imposed after protests broke out when Burhan Wani, a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, a pro-independence militant organization that advocates for Kashmir's independence from India, was killed in clashes with the Indian army. Journalists have been caught in the crossfire as protesters clash with police and authorities try to regain control by imposing curfews and blocking access to the internet.

]]>
CPJ has documented cases of protesters attacking the press and authorities ordering newspapers to stop publication. Journalists have also reported being injured by police firing pellet guns to counter protests.Muzamil Mattoo and Zuhaib Maqbool, two freelance photojournalists, are among those to have been injured by pellets. On September 4, the journalists were covering a gathering of about 40 people during the curfew in the Rainawari area of Srinagar. Mattoo said that when police arrived to break up the gathering, an officer fired at him and Maqbool, despite the photographers identifying themselves to him as press.

In an interview with CPJ, Mattoo recounts the attack and explains why the protestsof 2016 are different from those in 2008 and 2010.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Amit Kumar, senior superintendent of the Jammu and Kashmir police in Srinagar, did not respond to CPJ's telephone calls and text messages requesting comment.]

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Can you describe the attack on you?

[We were covering] a gathering of 40 to 50 people. We were clicking pictures and, all of a sudden, we heard a cry of "the police is coming." As the alley was too small, Zuhaib, me and another photographer couldn't manage to exit. Soon, the police arrested the youths and left, so we ran after them to keep ourselves safe. When we're on the side of the police, the worst that can happen is that we'll be hit by a stone thrown by a protester. If we're on the other side, we might be hit by a shell, bullets, pellets...anything. So Zuhaib and me went to the police [side] and started clicking pictures. [The police] told us, "Don't click the pictures" in a tone that was too rude. When [the police] reached the other alley, they found it was blocked already from the front and they were stuck. That's where the people came from and started chasing them with stones.

Zuhaib and I decided to leave since it wasn't safe. Zuhaib had already crossed the road and I was in the middle when suddenly a policeman came out with a pellet gun in his hand. He was barely 20ft to 30ft away. Zuhaib and I waved our cameras and said "press!" and we thought he saw us. He went inside [an empty alley] and, within seconds, came out ready to shoot us - his gun was pointing towards us. I got an intuition that he'd shoot and I ducked. Most pellets hit my head, some on my back and some on my left arm. I saved my face but Zuhaib was hit all over his body and his eye got damaged. He has lost the sight in his left eye and doctors say it will take another six months before they can say for sure whether he will recover his sight.

How many pellets hit you and what were the consequences of this injury?

Fifteen to 30 pellets hit my head and around five each on my left arm and back. I managed to take [some] out myself. But I had to go to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital the same day to get the ones in my head removed. The pellets that were visible immediately were pulled out. This is one of only two hospitals in Srinagar where critical care facilities are available, and since there was a rush of injured people I was asked to go back. After about 15 days, my head and skull got swollen. I wasn't able to sleep on my left side and had a cold sensation in my mouth. I got myself checked up and there were still some pellets stuck in my skull. A week later, I consulted a neurosurgeon. It took him more than three hours to remove the pellets stuck inside my skull.

Did you lodge a formal complaint about the attack on you and Zuhaib?

We tried to. We have to go through the Kashmir Press Photographers' Association. At first, [the photographer's association] thought that we were shooting photos from the protesters' side without taking appropriate measures, i.e. to shoot from the side of the police to minimize injuries. Three days later [after they reviewed our case,] they called us again, only to tell us that it's too late to file a complaint.

Who fired at you?

It was the Jammu and Kashmir police because I saw four of their vehicles and they were the only ones chasing protesters. What we have seen from the current uprising is that most of the police officers don't wear a [name] badge, so we don't know who they are. They don't wear their stars or their badges and they cover their faces. This guy [who shot at us] also had his face covered and he was without his badge and everything. But from the color of his uniform, we knew that he was from the Jammu and Kashmir police.

Jammu and Kashmir has seen similar protests in 2008 and 2010. During those times there was a clampdown on the media and a cameraman died when security forces opened fire on protesters. Are journalists at greater risk now?

In 2010, I didn't see anything like this happen. But this time, in the first month of the uprising itself, I heard that a 17-year-old boy was taken away by the police for posting a tweet. [CPJ was unable to verify this claim.] After that, they stopped the press from reporting for three days. Newspapers were banned, many Facebook pages were blocked, and internet (mobile and broadband) was banned for many days. There have been other instances too. I have a curfew pass issued by the divisional commissioner, but the police wouldn't let me go through areas under curfew. Once, a policeman just threw the pass on my face and said, "Tear it apart! I don't care! Just go back or I'll beat you up!" So it's worse this time.

[Reporting from New Delhi]

]]>
Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 30tag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.272062016-10-31T15:28:38Z2016-11-04T14:19:32Z Social media websites, WhatsApp blocked as police detain opposition leaders Turkey last night blocked access to social media websites and the text-messaging application WhatsApp as police arrested members of parliament for the opposition HDP party, including the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yuksekdag, according to press reports....Özgür Öğret/CPJ Turkey Representative

Social media websites, WhatsApp blocked as police detain opposition leaders Turkey last night blocked access to social media websites and the text-messaging application WhatsApp as police arrested members of parliament for the opposition HDP party, including the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yuksekdag, according topress reports.

Turkish Prime Minsiter Binali Yildirim, speaking at a press conference today, justified the censorship "in terms of security. These are temporary precautions. Everything will return to normal after the threat is parried," he said, according to the news website Bianet.

Detained Cumhuriyet journalists allowed to see lawyers Lawyers for Cumhuriyet's journalists detained on October 31 met their clients yesterday evening, the newspaper reported. Under emergency powers the government assumed after July's failed military coup, police can hold suspects for five days without access to a lawyer.

[November 4, 2016]

Prosecutor pursuing newspaper on terrorism charges himself target of terrorism investigation Murat İnam, the Istanbul prosecutor leading the investigation into the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, is among 54 judges and prosecutors accused of being followers of exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, whom the Turkish government accuses of maintaining a terrorist organization and "parallel state structure" that it blames for orchestrating a failed military coup in July, Oda TV's website reported yesterday.

In a statement released today, Cumhuriyet said the revelation meant the prosecutor's investigation was fatally compromised. "That the investigation against Cumhuriyet directors and columnists is being led by a prosecutor who is being judged for membership in the same organization means that the investigation has collapsed," the newspaper said. "We repeat with emphasis: This investigation has collapsed, and the right to a fair trial has been openly violated."

Oda TV today reported that prosecutors had opened a criminal investigation against its editor-in-chief, Barış Pehlivan, because his story about the criminal investigation against the prosecutor in Cumhuriyet's case. Oda TV reported that prosecutors were investigating Pehlivan for "targeting people who took part in the anti-terror struggle."

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ, in remarks to parliament today, denied authorities had opened an investigation into Pehlivan. Bozdağ said the Istanbul chief prosecutor's office had told him no such investigation was in progress. The minister also said he wished the investigation into Cumhuriyet had been given to another prosecutor, according to the news website Haberturk.

In an article published on Oda TV's website today, Pehlivan recorded his account of his conversation with the police officer who called him to inform him of the investigation. The police officer gave Pehlivan the case number of his file, the editor wrote.

Later the same police officer told Pehlivan that there was a mistake at the prosecutor's office, and that there was no investigation against him, Pehlivan wrote, speculating that the investigation had been withdrawn because of the public reaction.

In related news, Istanbul's Fourth Court of Penal Peace yesterday rejected lawyers for the Cumhuriyet journalists and directors detained on October 31's petition to be allowed to see their clients before the five days allowed under emergency provisions. The court said holding the defendants without access to lawyers for five days was legal.

[November 3, 2016]

Newspaper reporter detained Police in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır yesterday detained İsmail Çoban, a reporter for the shuttered Kurdish-language daily newspaper Azadiya Welat, according to press reports. The reasons for his detention were not immediately clear. Azadiya Welat was among the Kurdish media outlets closed by emergency decree on October 29. Diyarbakır was the site of protests last week following the arrest of the city's ethnic-Kurdish mayor and her deputy.

Newspaper says website under attackThe embattled opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet yesterday wrote on Twitter that its website was under relentless attack, bringing the site down. The newspaper encouraged people to read its coverage on Facebook.

Lawyers ask court to be allowed see detained journalists Lawyers for the embattled daily newspaper Cumhuriyet today asked Istanbul's Fourth Court of Penal Peace to be allowed to see journalists detained on October 31.

Emergency provisions put in place after July's failed military coup allow authorities to hold detainees for five days without access to their lawyers.

The court issued a verdict at around 1 p.m. local time and sent it to the prosecutor's office without notifying the lawyers of the verdict, the newspaper reported.

Vilson Akbaş, one of the lawyers, said the team was still petitioning the prosecutors to inform them of the verdict. "Even if the court's decision is positive, [the prosecutors] are trying to make these five days pass" without allowing the lawyers to meet the detained journalists.

Police on October 31 raided the Istanbul office of the opposition daily newspaper Cumhuriyet and detained at least 12 of the newspaper's journalists and directors. Authorities produced a court order making the investigations secret, meaning defense attorneys will not know anything about the investigation until their clients are indicted.

The Turkish government accuses exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen of maintaining a terrorist organization and "parallel state structure" within Turkey that it alleges was behind July's failed military coup. Gülen has strenuously denied the allegation.

Authorities yesterday produced a court order making the investigation secret, meaning that defense lawyers will not have access to the evidence against their clients until they are indicted. Anatolia reported that authorities cite the newspaper's headlines, columns, news stories, and material its journalists had published on Twitter as evidence of the newspaper's "pro-FETÖ stance."

Police detain 21 media regulators Police today detained at least 21 officials from Turkey's media regulator, the RTÜK, as part of a sweeping purge of those suspected of being followers of Gülen, the Anatolia News Agency reported. Police have warrants for the arrest of seven additional RTÜK officials from across the country, Anatolia said.

Watchdog: Pro-government 'lynch mobs' behind 2000 cases of online harassment in 2016 Pro-Turkish-government "lynch mobs" engaged in 2000 cases of online harassment, smear campaigns and hacking over the course of 2016, London's Guardianreported today, based on research by the International Press Institute (IPI).

Cumhuriyet newspaper offices raided, at least 12 journalists detainedPolice in Istanbul today raided the offices of the opposition daily newspaper Cumhuriyet and detained at least 12 of the newspaper's journalists and directors. Authorities produced a court order making the investigations secret, meaning defense attorneys will not know anything about the investigation until their clients are indicted.

The Chief Prosecutor's Office of Istanbul in a statement today said the journalists were detained on suspicion of producing propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the so-called Fethullah Gülen Terror Organization (FETÖ), two rival groups the Turkish government classes as terrorist organizations. The statement also said investigators were looking into alleged irregularities in the last elections of the board of directors of the foundation that owns Cumhuriyet, and that the newspaper published pro-coup propaganda in advance of July's failed military coup attempt.

According to Cumhuriyet, police detained the following journalists and directors from the newspaper today:

Murat Sabuncu, editor-in-chief

Turhan Günay, editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet's literary supplement

Hikmet Çetinkaya, columnist

Aydın Engin, columnist

Güray Öz, columnist

Hakan Kara, columnist

Musa Kart, cartoonist

Bülent Utku, lawyer and member of the Cumhuriyet Foundation's board of directors

Police also seek the following Cumhuriyet journalists and directors, some of whom are out of the country, the newspaper reported:

Can Dündar, columnist and former editor in chief

Nebil Özgentürk, editor

Akın Atalay, lawyer and chairman of the Cumhuriyet Foundation's board of directors

Günseli Özaltay, chief accountant

Police were searching the homes of those detained and wanted when this report went to press. The detained will not be able to see their lawyers for at least five days, according to another Cumhuriyetreport.

Government closes 15 news outlets by decree Turkey's government eviscerated what remained of the country's Kurdish media, closing 15 media outlets by decree on October 29, using emergency powers it assumed after July's failed military coup. Decrees No. 675 and 676 shuttered the pro-Kurdish Dicle (DİHA) and Jin (JİNHA) news agencies, the newspapers Özgür Gündem, Azadiya Welat, and 11 more newspapers and magazines:

Yüksekova Haber

Batman Çağdaş

Cizre Postası

İdil Haber

Güney Ekspres

Prestij Haber

Urfanatik

Kızıltepe'nin Sesi

Tiroj

Evrensel Kültür

Özgürlük Dünyası

Police raided and sealed the offices of the affected media organs across the country yesterday, the news website T24 reported. Their assets will be transferred to the state treasury, according to press reports.

Decree No: 675 also cancelled the government's previous decree, No. 668, to shutter the radio stations Umut FM and Yağmur FM, the local television station SRT, and the local newspapers Lider, İscehisar Durum, Bingöl Olay, EGE'de Son Söz, Hakikat, Kurtuluş, Lider, İscehisar Durum, Bingöl Olay, EGE'de Son Söz, and Hakikat.

Under emergency provisions put in place after the failed July coup attempt, prosecutors already had the right to deny suspects the right to see an attorney for five days. Decree No. 667 increased this period to six months. Decree No. 676 further stipulated that the state may record conversations between those detained or investigated on suspicion of terrorism and their lawyers, and that an official may be present for lawyer-client conversations in custody.

[October 31, 2016]

]]>
Ethiopia's state of emergency cuts lines of communication and puts bloggers at risk of arresttag:cpj.org,2016:/blog//8.271852016-10-24T21:52:52Z2016-10-25T15:29:27Z On October 4, I heard that my friend Natnael Feleke had not returned home even though it was approaching midnight in Ethiopia. Family and friends were discussing where to search for the blogger, who had only been released 11 months earlier from the notorious Kilinto prison, where he was...Soleyana S Gebremichael/CPJ Guest Blogger

On October 4, I heard that my friend Natnael Feleke had not returned home even though it was approaching midnight in Ethiopia. Family and friends were discussing where to search for the blogger, who had only been released 11 months earlier from the notorious Kilinto prison, where he was held for 16 months over his blogging. As Ethiopia responds to months of anti-government protests, the fear of bloggers and social media activists being targeted again seemed real.

]]>
Family members went searching for Natnael and he was finally found in one of the many police stations in Addis Ababa. He and two friends had been arrested for talking about politics in public. Natnael was released after four days, but in the coming week the government declared a state of emergency in a move that has further endangered the safety of bloggers, journalists, and even ordinary citizens.

The emergency measure was imposed amid anti-government protests that started in Oromia, the largest region in Ethiopia, and spread to different parts of the country. By the time the six-month state of emergency was declared on October 10, at least 500 people had died during months of protests, according to reports. Protesters and activists had relied on social media for sources and to exchange information, but the use of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook was banned under the emergency measures.

Journalism is already one of the most dangerous professions in Ethiopia. This explains why a country of around 100 million has only one daily state-owned newspaper and a handful of privately run magazines that provide only limited and self-censored political coverage. TV and radio are mainly owned and run by the state, with the exception of one FM station, Sheger, in the capital, Addis Ababa. Ethio Telecom, the sole internet and telecom service provider, is also government-controlled. In recent years, this closed media space has created a dependency on social media for unbiased and relatively reliable information.

Even before the state of emergency the government had started to respond to the growing popularity of Facebook by blocking websites and trying to intimidate bloggers through the threat of arrest or online warnings by pro-government supporters. The response reached its peak in April 2014, with the arrest of the Zone 9 bloggers. They were later charged with terrorism. Even though many have been intimidated by the government's growing hostility, social media continues to be a relevant platform. [Editor's note: The author is a founding member of Zone 9, which CPJ honored with an International Press Freedom Award in 2015.]

Following the recent anti-government protests, social media became a source of information and place to mobilize protests, as well as a platform for citizens to express their anger and frustration at the many killings and arrests they say the government has carried out. The government denies its forces are responsible for the deaths. Until recently, the government's response was to regulate social media by randomly blocking sites and VoIP (voice over internet protocol) applications.

The state of emergency tightened these controls to include any form of media and put extreme limits on the right to access information. An "emergency executive command post," which was established under the state of emergency, prohibits the dissemination through internet, text message, or social media any message deemed to "incite violence." Communication with "foreign elements" and watching the diaspora-based TV stations Oromo Media Network and Ethiopia Satellite Television is also prohibited. The announcement of the state of emergency was followed by a total shut down of mobile internet, social media, and all VoIP applications in Ethiopia.

The new rules have, in effect, suspended constitutional rights including freedom of expression. A translated draft of the directive for the executive command post does not explicitly mention what amounts to a "violence-inciting message" or who would decide what counts as "violence-inciting communication." The directive has also suspended the right of those arrested to be brought to court. Instead, the new body has the right to detain anyone suspected of being in violation of the rules for six months, without a court ruling.

This directive makes many bloggers and social media activists and users vulnerable to being detained for an undefined period with no due process. Bloggers like the Zone9 group, who have been trying to continue their work after a year-long imprisonment, will also be affected by the restriction. The law puts many more journalists who had been using social media as a means to report, communicate, and reflect, in danger. The fear among them that something they have reported on will be considered as "inciting violence" is high.

The crackdown on independent voices has already increased in recent weeks, according to Ethiopian activists and news reports. A renowned blogger, Seyoum Teshome, was arrested just days before the state of emergency was declared; a social media activist, Eyasped Tesfaye, was arrested the week the new directive was enforced and still has not been allowed access to a lawyer or been brought before a court; Blen Mesfin another social media activist and opposition party member, has also been a victim of the trend for arbitrary arrests.

The impact of the state of emergency directive and blocking of social media and mobile data is already being reflected in the online political discourse. In the past two weeks, information coming out from citizen journalists and bloggers has become limited, leaving only the state and government-affiliated media as the only easily accessible sources of information.